The 100 Days of the Doctor

"I'm here to take revenge on my murderer."

Writer: Paul Cornell
Format: Audio
Released: September 2007
Series: Main Range 100d

Featuring: Sixth Doctor, Evelyn

Synopsis

Someone has assassinated the Doctor.

And he only has 100 days to find out who did it.

Verdict

The 100 Days of the Doctor was a brilliant story and a wonderful way to conclude the 100 anthology. This was most definitely a story worth a centenary celebration and it was definitely the best of the bunch, even topping 100 BC despite having the same rating. The concept of this story really was excellent and I really shouldn't have expected anything less from Paul Cornell. We saw the softer side of the Sixth Doctor that is so common and familiar on audio now and seeing him faced with the prospect of being assassinated was quite something. The way the Texinuerons had engineered an assassin to takeover the speech centres of the Doctor's body was intriguing and also worrying because for something to take control of the Doctor, whilst in the TARDIS, disaster could have occurred. The Doctor was fully aware of what was going on which must have been frightening but he would soon be determined to save himself from the intelligent virus that he had been injected with. They had 100 days and using the TARDIS and some narrowing down, the Doctor could investigate some specific trips made in the past decade or so in a certain sector of space where the Texinuerons operated. With that, the Doctor and Evelyn spied a little on an adventure had by the Fifth Doctor, Peri and Erimem. I thought that was lovely and the banter that came from his current companion's description of his past incarnation was terrific. I also loved the Sixth Doctor's comments about the relationship Peri and Erimem had. I thought that really was lovely and I was also quite surprised to hear how much the Doctor enjoyed his previous incarnation despite the universe being mean to him. It really was a fascinating exchange. The TARDIS though had included future journeys in the same area in the Doctor's temporal map so he was able to see his next incarnation once again following The Sirens of Time. He recognised him and his comments about his future self were very surprising again, especially when he mentioned how he didn't understand why his sixth incarnation was known as aggressive. His admiration towards the Seventh Doctor was fantastic though and he really was impressed with how he was teaching Ace and Hex. The glimpse forward to two different versions of the Eighth Doctor was quite interesting too though I thought the Doctor's comments about Hex and not previously travelling with a non-humanoid were a little off. Doesn't he remember K9? Well, he was suffering from memory loss to be fair. I thought the comments regarding an audience watching or listening to the Doctor's travels was a lovely break of the fourth wall and it wasn't the only instance which was good. The idea of the Sixth Doctor meeting Bernice Summerfield was surprising and I liked how the Krynoids got a mention. The way the Doctor stopped his assassination by locating the antidote in the original assassin who shot the microscopic dart was good and overall, it was a tremendous story! Here's to the next 100...

Rating: 9/10